Ethics, leadership, and corporate social responsibility in African organizations

African Approaches to Ethics and Ethical Theory

The evolution of the modern business environment has led to the rapid development of the concept of leadership as well as the expectations that are placed on contemporary for-profit and not-for-profit organizational leadership. This has prompted many academic disciplines to study leadership from many different perspectives and there have been countless leadership models and theories that have arisen to attempt to account for the factors that inherent in effective leadership. However, at the same time, it seems to be the case that some leadership styles are more or less effective in certain circumstances and there can be multiple paths to being an effective leader. Furthermore, to add another layer of complexity to the role of modern leadership, today's leaders must also factor in extended sets of stakeholders into much of their decision making as well as a greater consideration of environmental impacts that a company's operations may have on a local, or even global, level. This analysis will consider another level of investigation that is relevant to leadership which can be thought of as the cultural context that leaders operate within and the role that ethics play within this context. Furthermore, the corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) trends will be compared and contrasted between Western firms and African organizations.

Literature Review

Leadership is abstract and difficult to define concept that has prompted virtually countless theories from both within and outside the academic community. Some of the more popular models that have been produced within academia include models such as the charismatic, transformational, authentic, servant and spiritual leadership models and there are also six common leadership development practices that include 360-degree feedback, mentoring, coaching, networks, job assignment and action learning (Pinnington, 2011). Although mainstream leadership development has attempted to standardize as much of the leadership role as possible, although many believe that leadership is as much as art as it is a science and is difficult to standardize. Furthermore, the primary objectives of leadership can also vary with the context and some researchers have proposed that an argument can readily be advanced in favor of a different approach to leadership and its development, whenever the 'primary aim is civic and social change rather than performance' (Pinnington, 2011).

Yet, even within this trajectory, there are also many subtle differences in what can be considered appropriate drivers of civic and social change. For example, some have argued that the mainstream corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda was largely driven by the concerns and priorities of western countries and therefore tends to be insensitive to local priorities (Idemudia, 2011). As a consequence, many developing countries have some difficulties in applying a CSR perspective to their individual sets of circumstances. As a result, despite the importance of universal principles for both businesses and stakeholders, there is a recurring tension between universal expectations and local challenges and opportunities such as the fact that many multinational companies (MNCs) often repatriate monies that acquired through tax evasion and thus disadvantages the local communities in which these MNCs operate (Idemudia, 2011).

As a result of the Western bias in CSR perspectives, many MNCs will focus on CSR opportunities that provide the most exposure and positive publicity in their target markets as opposed to the regions in which they conduct their production activities which is typically in the developing world. Therefore, many CSR programs are in many ways unethical in many regards and unbalanced along global supply chains. Some researchers have found that there are no significance differences in the attitudes toward business ethics in relation to gender and nationality and have proposed that there is need to reshape business ethics education in higher learning institutions so that students can develop better awareness towards business ethics (Fatokl & Marembo, 2012). It is reasonable to suspect that an increased awareness of business ethics and CSR activities could help to counter the global injustices that have been identified.